📝 Articles
AI and Design Systems
In Brad's article, AI tools are explored for their potential to enhance design systems, offering solutions such as generating component code, translating between tech stacks, and automating unit tests and accessibility reviews. These advancements aim to streamline development processes while emphasising the importance of human oversight and organisation-specific adaptation.
Are we too pedantic with semantic
Luis delves into the rising emphasis on semantic naming within design systems, particularly in the context of variables in Figma, questioning their necessity and proposing reliance on scoping instead. They suggest maintaining a single set of primitive variables with scoping for implementation, aiming for simplicity and closer collaboration with developers, rather than enforcing complex semantic conventions.
Mise en mode
Donnie explores the concept of "mise en mode," proposing a method to reduce the reliance on design tokens by utilising rectangles as boundaries for design decisions. Through questioning current norms and proposing innovative solutions, They introduce the idea of creating nested collections of modes within interfaces, allowing for expressive enhancement while simplifying token management and supporting users' creative freedom.
Razorpay: Boosting design system adoption, and design-to-dev collaboration with Figma
Learn how one India's largest and fastest-growing financial service companies uses Figma to keep design and development in sync and drive adoption of their design system.
Design System Success: Mindset Matters!
Ellis emphasises the importance of mindset in the success of design systems, highlighting collaboration, flexibility, empathy, continuous improvement, and ownership as key factors. They advocate for involving all stakeholders in the design process, adapting to user needs, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement to fully realise the potential of design systems in enhancing product design and development.
👀 Interesting Reads
Information vs Experience: how to build mature Design Systems
Gustavo explores the concept of mature Design Systems, emphasising the importance of experience over mere information and tools. They argue that real maturity in design systems comes from testing and exposing patterns and components to real users to ensure they meet actual needs and expectations, rather than relying solely on theoretical knowledge or automated tools.
Title goes here
Donnie explores the naming conventions for components, particularly focusing on areas surrounding the title slot in page layout. They emphasise naming based on purpose rather than position, suggesting names like "Headline," "Lead," "Media," "Caption," "Body," "Folio," and "Callout" to ensure consistent presentation and user understanding.
🧰 Tools / Resources
Design Tokens Starter Set | JSON, Variables & Tokens Studio sync
A neat Figma file from Philipp with some ready-to-go variables and design tokens with a great 'getting started' page of resources to help you make use of this for your own projects